Arsenal vs Tottenham 4-1: Premier League Title Race Recap

Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport and soccer. This is Tackling the Chicane.

All right, well, we're gonna try to go here.

Uh, equipment issues. Need a new headphone cord. Mine was kind of messing up when you were— admittedly, when you were messing with it, but I don't know if it's It's just everything's cheap. Everything's cheap these days, even though these are pretty expensive headphones. I don't, I don't know if it's the cord or the sound.

Yeah, we have some, we have a shit soundboard, so that's probably 2 years past its shelf life. Yeah, I, I know, and I, I just need to take some time and figure out something because I'm sure that there is there are better soundboards than this one that I paid like sub-$100 for. Uh, yeah, I— we will, we'll work on that, I guess. Yeah, I didn't know if, you know, 4 years in if we were still going to be doing this, so happy to say that, um, We are, and this is coming up on episode 156. It might be 7 now, but, um, if you want, we can switch chords if it's gonna be— no, I think it's debilitating.

No, I— it— I don't know. It's fine right now. It's fine as long as I just don't move. All right, well, if you end up losing your mind, we can switch the equipment around. We should be good.

Cool. Well, uh, here we are on the precipice of March. This will be our last febrero recording. Thank God. Yeah, which means we have survived the offseason because IndyCar is back on track tomorrow for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Maybe can you can some applause there? Oh yeah, yeah.

Are you ready?

Wow. Oh yeah, there you go. Are you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. I'm looking forward to this IndyCar season.

Um, Meyer Shank has, uh, secured some really good sponsorship, I think, for probably the 500, uh, in RE/MAX, which is going to bring a lot of money to that campaign. So that'll be fun to watch. And then, um, we're going to keep an eye on this Rahal Letterman Lanigan team with their new lineup of drivers, including A one Mr. Mick Schumacher. Yeah, I'm really interested to see what tomorrow brings. Obviously it's just a practice, but you'll get sort of an idea of where teams and drivers are at.

There is some sort of breaking news now. If you've been— if you're sort of an IndyCar junkie like, uh, myself, you would have known that Prema was in a pretty bad spot Uh, coming off the end of last season, and it has been confirmed that they are not showing up to St. Petersburg at all. Um, so that will reduce the grid from 27 to 25. Whether or not that continues, because the IndyCar season, which is different from most years, is off to a very fast start because it's St. Pete The week after, it's the NASCAR doubleheader in Phoenix, then maybe a week off, and then it's the Arlington, the new event in Arlington outside the Cowboys Stadium. So I don't know if IndyCar's website really stinks.

I'm just saying because it, it doesn't have any kind of cohesive navigation. I mean, I should be able to pull up this race and, and get what I need as far as stats, you know, track stats and things like that. I'm not seeing that, uh, but regardless, uh, 1.8-mile, 14-turn circuit here at St. Petersburg, Florida. Um, and the reason I found it— so, oh, there you go. Yeah, yeah, I just— you have that Yeah, I just needed to scroll.

Okay.

But yeah, it's weird. I have not experienced— now granted, I was not really alive for the sort of, uh, rough-and-tumble era of American racing, but for a team to just not show up basically because it seems like they've ran out of money is not something that happens in the modern Sport all that much. It, I think it does in open wheel racing, American style, more than any other series, because a lot of these teams are really small town derived, you know, cash on the table. Let's do it. Let's see what we can do with this type teams.

Now, Prema, I, I don't know where that money came from. Well, they're, they, they're an F2 team. Okay. That's their bread and butter. Yeah.

And it's unfortunate because, well, they were, they were fun to watch. Yeah. And they, they had 2 of the best liveries of all the cars that I've seen. 2 good drivers, or at least drivers with some promise. Kalle Myllyt is sort of a, a known entity in IndyCar.

And then Schwartzman was Uh, well, he, remember, sat on the pole for the Indy 500, which was— no one saw coming. So was that an official release that they would not be participating? Yeah, it's reported. Do you think they'll be at the 500?

I don't know, probably no. Are they going to be at Phoenix? Are they going to be at— yeah, I think, you know, they're— they've ran out of money. And I don't know how the fuck that happens with a program so established in Europe. Yeah, okay, so if you recall though, on those IndyCars that Prema ran, very, very little sponsorship.

But you would think Prema would know going in, okay, this is roughly how much it's gonna cost. When you enter a series in the modern era You would think the ownership would go, okay, this is obviously going into racing is a risk financially, but we should be able to cover even the worst of what would happen. We should be able to keep the lights on for a second season. How does that happen? Well, it— I think it's happened a lot over the course of IndyCar history.

Yeah. Um, as I said, you know, small teams come and go. They, they create enough funding for a year's worth of effort and then the money drops off and then, you know, there's, there's nothing, there's nothing coming in. And then, you know, you have to pay a huge team of people to to deliver this product from state to state. And the weird thing is though, like, the investment was there.

This— their setup in Indianapolis last year when we were at the 500 was impressive. It was one of the most impressive. You remember the facility they had? Maybe they blew their wad on that. Well, but again, I go back to my original point.

How did you not know what it was gonna cost? You are an established and notable F2 team to just show up to IndyCar and go, oh, let's see what we can do. Oh shit, we ran out of money. Um, I don't know how that could be right. It, it is, it's, it's a little strange, but it, it has happened in the past.

Yeah. Um, it's unfortunate, you know. I would, I would have liked to see them stick around for a while. Think about like Rahal, they're in IMSA. I mean, Rahal, we're not talking about ungodly money.

They're in IMSA, they've kept that program going. Uh, Meyer Shank has been in IMSA for a while. Like, yeah, so you have, you have several of these teams that are racing in multiple series. Yeah, and then not even counting like IndyNext vehicles. Andretti is all over Indy.

I mean, Andretti is a huge name, so— but still, like, yeah, I just don't really get it. I don't know. But I think a lot of the people who are successful at racing have their capitalism in something else. Yeah, Meyer Shank, you know, obviously those guys are doing other things besides racing, other business ventures. Most I don't, this must just be the way things go, but the first thing that most successful pro professional drivers do is they start buying car dealerships.

Yeah. So there must be some kind of liquidity in owning a car dealership because Rahal has a ton. Jeff Gordon has a ton.

And, uh, Meyer Shank, I don't know where— what they do otherwise. I, I don't know what— where their efforts, um, yeah, otherwise are at, but it could be money from other enterprise. I'm pretty sure Mike Shank, I'm pretty sure, has been in racing forever, so I think he at least built that up. And then he's got other investors. Well, there's no, there's no better thing.

There's no better way to exercise your cash and dump money than a race team. Yeah. Yeah. And, but here, that's again ties back to my point. If you're in the business of racing specifically to make money, you are not very smart.

No. And I don't know what Prema's expectation of firing up an entire IndyCar program was. Did they expect to roll in the Benjamins? Um, I don't think hardly any team probably operates, uh, in, in the black, so to speak. Um, at least, you know, from what they do on track.

Sure. So I just don't really know, and maybe more details will come out, but it just seems very strange to me. And then you leave kind of 2 drivers that showed their worth in the series last year, you leave them kind of completely up shit's creek because they were hanging around waiting all offseason. Are we gonna drive? Yeah.

I think it's pretty common though. You take, take your contract, you get paid. Yeah. And then if things don't work out, you move. Yeah.

I mean, drivers are moving. They find seats. If you're worth a damn, you'll find a seat somewhere. So practice, uh, tomorrow at 1:30. Uh, FS2 is going to broadcast that.

And then Saturday, uh, practice at 9:30 AM, 4:30. PM is qualifications. I believe we're going to be at the new car show, um, here at Studio 2520, uh, so I will either have to suffer the replay of that or I will record it. And I would like to see qualies, probably.

Uh, Sunday, the warm-up. This is a I don't, I don't know. The warm-up is at 9 AM and then the race kicks off at 12 PM. And I also, I know there's a NASCAR race as well this weekend, right? Yeah, at COTA.

Cup is at COTA. The trucks are at St. Petersburg, the same, the same course, Saturday. I know, uh, Dario Franchitti and James Hinchcliffe are both in trucks, piloting trucks. Yeah. We'll see.

That might be kind of— that's the first time the Truck Series has ever ran on a street course. So that— I can't believe that that thing has— I can't believe that that series has maintained itself. Well, it's because it's a NASCAR entity. So yeah, but that's who it's like. People like to race trucks.

I mean, no, no, it— what it is, just another vehicle, uh, another vehicle. Well, it's, it's part of the development ladder. Of NASCAR. So usually guys young— if you're young in trucks, you're trying to move up. If you're old, you're just old and you like to race, and that's as high as you ever got.

And I mean, truck is a— yeah, it's a loose term. It's just a loose term. It's, it's a car with a truck body. It's like the Xfinity car, but they cut off the back half. Yeah.

I wonder if the wheelbase is similar to a regular NASCAR? I don't— I think it's smaller. I— they're— I believe they are smaller. I mean, the current— I know nothing about the Truck Series. Who— so who's in there?

Ford, Ford, Toyota I think is still in it, Chevy, and I think new for this year, Ram. Yeah, as they should be. Yeah, so that— I believe that was new for this year. I don't know anyone all the guys that I like knew that were full-time trucks have moved up since then. I remember Josevar being in the trucks, who's made a big name for himself.

Uh, Corey Heim, I think, is the champion from last year. Could be wrong there. Um, but yeah, that'll be— that might be one of those races you tune in just to kind of see. Uh, you're almost certain it's gonna be chaos. Just see what hell happens.

Yeah, um, but that'll be fun. As for the IndyCar season as a whole, just giving like a little preview, I think there's, there's 2 guys that I'm really interested to see how they do. And it's funny because they are interlinked. David Maloukas taking over Will Power's seat at Penske, I think, is a very interesting story to keep track of. And also Will Power at Andretti this year is going to be very interesting because, uh, I think Will's got a little something to prove.

Yeah, no doubt about that. Um, and he's— if you were trying to join a team to prove it, it would be that team. So he's, you're, we're going to talk, we're going to see willpower a lot this year in this Penske car. And I think Maloof is finally going to have all the chess pieces lined up. Yeah.

Because we know he has talent. He's come as close to winning as you can without winning. We know he has a tremendous amount of talent, even in a substandard or subpar vehicle. So I, I, I think we're going to see a lot of David Maloukas this year.

Possibly, dare I say, multiple wins? You'd hope. I mean, I think he was always sort of cast as an oval wizard, so to speak. Maybe not wizard because he's number 1, but you know, that was his talent. But he showed last year that he has speed pretty much everywhere.

I mean, he qualified high on a lot of street tracks and finished high on a lot of street, uh, circuits last year and came as close to winning as you can without winning, like I said, at a couple of the ovals. So I I think he will win a race this year. I don't know when or where, it's hard to say. And Penske is not going to be like they were last year where they won one time and were a disaster. Roger, that's not the way that operation functions.

They don't do 2 bad seasons in a row. Yeah. So that is going to make it more interesting, I think, by default, because I think Palou is going to have a lot more competition this year. As it should be. I'm looking forward to that.

McLaren continues their sort of stalwart position. It doesn't— they don't do anything poorly. No. So it'll be interesting to see how they fare this year as well. Um, just that's what's really great about this series is every year seems to be kind of a rebirth when, especially now in 2026, when drivers have kind of moved around a bit.

Yeah. There's been a lot of movement. Yeah. So that'll be great to see. And then upcoming new chassis.

I'm not sure when that's 28. Supposed to debut. But this car has just gotten better through the 2010s up until where we're at now in 2026.

The car is just— the chassis have just gotten better and better.

So it's— we're on the cusp of what could be a Potentially one of the best seasons for IndyCar. And then F1, we're going to, I'm going to search for predictions for next week's show, which let's see, Monday is the 2nd, 5th. So we'll be right on that. The, it'll be the eve of the first practice. Okay.

So that'd be perfect. To do Australia. In fact, I think the first practice might technically be Thursday night here in the States. That'll be good for predictions on the next pod. Yeah.

And just a quick dip into NASCAR. Apparently Tyler Reddick has won his second race. Yeah. There are some stats out there. I think 3 races in a row is the record for the, the kickoff to the NASCAR season.

I don't know if he's going to be able to do that or not. He's pretty good at road courses and they're at a road course, so certainly not impossible. There is a guy named Shane van Gensbergen in the series who we— who has never won at COTA. That's the only road track he's never won at. No, but he's a pretty— he's a decent road racer, obviously.

Yeah, well, he won 5. Yeah, last year. Now there's less road races this year. Is COTA— uh, that race is Sunday as well? Yeah, right after IndyCar.

Okay, so, so the TV number should be pretty damn good because there you're gonna have the NASCAR follow-up. Well, and we're coming off the Olympics, so people have nothing else to watch. We're kind of in the limbo purgatory of American sports. Yeah, at least. Yeah, basketball is not— it's playoff push, but most of the— you know your team's making the playoffs at this point, right?

And we don't have NCAA tournament for at least a few more weeks. Yeah, so I think that shapes up to be a pretty rock-solid, uh, afternoon on Fox for the television number. I will say Atlanta, they've got it figured out. They repaved and redeveloped that track. It's basically a draft track now, but it's, uh, it is a draft track now, but it's It's narrower than Daytona.

The turns are tighter. It's a mile and a half. Uh, it makes for great racing. It's still— I cannot stand overtime. I think that is the biggest fucking gimmick in the world.

I actually don't mind stage racing. I cannot stand overtime because it, it changes the winner of that race. 9 times out of 10, because obviously I'm a Bubba Wallace fan, but he led the last 20 laps of that race. Then Byron wrecked with 4 to go overtime. Of course he didn't fucking win.

Yeah, of course. So I cannot— and it's not even just because of that. That's just— the race is a distance. It's a set fucking distance. You don't get to do more because we need to finish under green.

That's so fucking dumb. Yeah, I just can't. NASCAR just never ceases to amaze me with their dumbass gimmicks, and they've gotten rid of the 2 biggest ones this year with the stupid playoff format, which is gone. Yeah, get rid of the goddamn overtime, please. They're trying a bit too hard.

Um, You know, racing in its purest form is— can be boring sometimes. So if you have a wreck late in the race and that creates a caution, then so be it. Yeah, and Kevin Harvick made a good point on the, the new, uh, Fox's Restart at Speed you remember the Speed Channel back in the day? Yeah, yeah. It's a podcast basically now, show Will Buxton and Kevin Harvick, but they talk about a bunch of different series of racing.

But he made a good point where it's like NASCAR kind of forgot who their fans were for a while, um, and what NASCAR was. And another thing is like Sometimes racing, it's just who can build and race the best car. So quit trying to manipulate results. Yeah, and that all just comes down to them trying to make it more sensual to the viewer. Yeah.

But you're taking out the, the purity factor of how a race can end. Yeah. And, and, and until these guys figure out a way not to crash on the last 3 laps, and that's probably not going to ever happen. And I think on draft tracks. Yeah.

So historically, I would— it would be interesting to go back sort of in time, and I'm talking go back to the '80s. Did we see this kind of weirdness at the end of races? Did we see this kind of, uh, collection of cars and, and wrecks that happened in the last 2 to 3 laps? The restrictor plate, which came '87. I think the only reason I know that is because I just watched a video about it, but that, um, it artificially packs up the, the race, and of course there's going to be a wreck because someone's going to try and make a move to win.

I— you can say what you want about restrictor plate racing, it is pretty entertaining, but by no means is it the purest form of racing. I mean, it's— you basically put a governor on all the cars and they— every car is able to run that speed. So it's just this big pack. It's kind of silly, you know. In early days of racing, it was kind of run what you brung.

Yeah, well, NASCAR, yeah. If you were— had some kind of advantage because you figured out something Um, then that gave you, uh, it gave you a bit, bit of a lift on the rest of the field because you figured out something aero or you figured out something with your engine. And now you're just saying, no, everyone is at the exact, this exact same for draft. Yeah. Courses, tracks.

Um, yeah. I don't know. I, I, I keep coming back, so they're doing something right for me at least. And part of that is the social aspect. But just, I cannot believe how many stupid gimmicks NASCAR has.

Yeah. And it didn't used to be like that. And they're, they're tracking, they're trending the right direction. But does any Maybe I'm, maybe I'm wrong, but does anyone really care that much if you finish under green? Seriously, does anyone care that much?

Does anyone need to see 3 fucking overtimes every race? I just find that— I find it tedious. And say what you will, obviously IndyCar, unprecedented success from Palou last year. 8 or 9 wins. We, we have sat and talked for hours about a season where Max Verstappen won, what, 15 of the races out of a possible 22 or something?

But at least at the end of the day, you knew the best driver with the best car won. At least you knew that. You never felt cheated out of someone getting a win because, well, we have to go to overtime because we didn't finish under green. Yeah, come on.

Yeah, but that— I'll let that rest for now. It is kind of, uh, where we're at in the state of NASCAR things. Um, I still really enjoy the series. I know there's a few pundits out there who don't. Um, we had, uh, during the 500, one of our, our great, uh, friends, uh, who texts pictures of people in mullets.

What did he say? He said something, it might be inappropriate, but something about what he would rather watch as opposed to NASCAR. Uh, curling. Women's curling. Okay.

It wasn't inappropriate, but yeah, no. And what I say to, to that is let us who enjoy the series watch potentially the biggest race of the year is the 500. So yeah, I'm sorry if you don't enjoy that, but yeah, it's good stuff. We're all about wheels here. And we like anything, all manner of— yeah.

Um, all right, last thing, F1 testing. We've, we've gotten results out of that, and, uh, I don't know how closely you followed that. It's kind of hard to get a lot of information, but from what I've heard, Aston Martin is a complete disaster. Incredible disaster. Strange because put a lot of, um, effort into developing this car with Adrian Newey.

Apparently Newey has said they were 4 months behind on development. Okay, to begin with. And, uh, with the new Honda power unit that seems to be underpowered, um, they apparently all the big pundits, all the trusted sources that I watch on YouTube and stuff have said this car is going to be bad to start at least. And that's, that's fine. I mean, um, if, if that gives Cadillac some kind of advantage over a tractor, then I'll take it.

Yeah, I think we need to also temper expectations. I think collectively as a nation of F1 fans on Cadillac, let's— being a new team in F1 is you're mostly just going to be the punching bag pretty much all season. I, I don't think Testing has shown they're not very fast, which isn't really— obviously they're not going to be punching with the big, the heavyweights, but they— if they score more than 20 points this year, I would say that's a pretty big success. Yeah. So I think I, I've just— we've seen a lot of fucking hype, especially in the US, about the Cadillac team lets everyone just calm down and have realistic expectations about a new team in F1 where everyone else is established.

Everyone relax. Yeah, it, uh, it, it should be fun to watch and, um, A new team to, to root for, for us in the States here. And obviously we'll collectively keep our eye on Haas, um, because I think only better things are going to come with that team as they mature into their 8th or 9th— 11th, 11th season. Yeah.

Um, so good things to come for them, hopefully. Uh, testing-wise, they were actually really good by their standards, so it's testing. Yeah. Uh, it's— I would expect to see maybe some fireworks from them, uh, in Australia, which is next weekend as we record. So that will be fun.

Anything else In the world of motorsports. I, I think we're, uh, good to move on to a little bit of footy, as we call it, or football. And I know you wanted to talk about the game that happened Sunday, which I have no notes on because I was— I just wanted to watch it purely. But yeah, we could— you can carry us there. All right, well, obviously the, the— it's a 2-horse title race in England in the Premier League right now, uh, Arsenal and Man City.

Now if you look at the table, technically Arsenal have a 5-point lead. Uh, they have played an extra game though, so really it's 2 points unless Man City lose. Lose or draw. Um, Arsenal are— this is the point where historically their title fight tends to fall off a complete and total cliff. Now their form isn't really that bad.

It's, it's 3 wins and 2 draws in their last 5. The, the thing is the draws were against not so great opposition, including Wolves, who are potentially historically terrible. Man City, on the other hand, have rattled off 3 wins in a row since, um, and Arsenal are kind of in a, a bit of a meat grinder schedule-wise right now. Now we'll talk about the Tottenham match here in a second. But they've got Chelsea next, then they've got, uh, Brighton away, Everton, and then March 22nd, my birthday, uh, they take on Man City at home.

So that could be title decider, who knows. But you have to take that into consideration as a pretty big narrative of this match against Tottenham. Arsenal coming off the back of 2 draws, all the pressure in the world is on them right now, quite literally the world, to, to perform and not throw away yet another chance at winning the Premier League to the, uh, at the expense of giving it to Man City. So let's— we'll dive into the game here. Before you do that, um, let's just take a quick break for cold medicine.

So Spurs are coming into this match on god-awful form and frankly are, are in a— and they're in a relegation battle. Which is kind of unbelievable to even say for a team of their stature. They're part of the Big 6, quote unquote, um, with Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, um, and Man United. And the Big 6 used to mean a lot more table-wise. There were years, many years, where you could count on those clubs making up the top 6 at the end of the season pretty regularly.

Um, recently that hasn't been the case, but essentially that's more to do with how much money they have. And to, to be— we're in March, essentially 27 matches in, and Spurs are in a genuine relegation fight. That is like kind of unthinkable. So just 29 points. Yeah.

I mean, they're, they're genuinely awful. Yeah. And not an awful squad to watch. I mean, they just, they have just floundered to the point where they're down there. I mean, for example, we have Brentford is way ahead.

Way ahead. Yeah. And this, you know, it happened last year with Spurs and everyone thought, okay, it's just a bloop because look at Man United. They finished 15th last year. They're currently in 4th and they've sacked their manager this year.

Spurs have sacked more than one. No, they haven't. They've sacked Thomas Frank and now they have Igor Tudor in, who you might know from Juventus.

They are— they're just— they're not good. Their squad sucks. I mean, you look at their starting 11, this is a mid-table team. At best. Their starting 11 is one of a mid-table Premier League team, and it's not all that surprising, especially given the fact that they have about 12 people injured, that they're, they're floundering in— what is it, 16th?

Um, and you knew they weren't gonna win this game. Even Spurs being shit outweighs Arsenal bottling the title every year, clearly. Because in Arsenal, just look at their attacking options: Victor Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze, Bukayo Saka, Trossard. And then you look at Spurs: Randal Kolo Muani, Conor fucking Gallagher, Xavi Simons. It's men against boys.

Yeah, men against boys. Spurs tried to make it interesting in the first half, to their credit. It took, uh, till the 32nd minute for Eberechi Eze to get the first goal, and then Kolo Muani for Spurs equalized in the 34th. That was pretty much the last time Spurs would be competitive. Yeah, the match.

And we had text Um, this was a Sunday morning match, so I— we had texts that maybe Spurs were gonna make a game of this, and then ultimately not so much. No, no. Defensively, they are just not— they're not good enough to handle this Arsenal attack. They've shipped 41 goals this year, which puts them near the bottom. And their skipper, uh, remind me of his name.

As in the manager? Yes, Igor Tudor. Brand spanking new, by the way, because they just sacked Thomas Frank. So this was his first match in charge. Yeah, not, you know, not a good scenario.

Continues to go this way, then we may see the same thing that we saw at Celtic, where you bring a guy in who has a potentially quote unquote fresh perspective, but just cannot get W's. No. And, and it's, you don't really know how much to put on that manager, how much to blame. And I know Celtic fans were incredibly harsh on Wilfred Nancy. I know I have my Columbus Crew bias, but I kind of could see from a mile away that Nancy was not set up for success at Celtic and was never gonna hit the ground running middle of the season with the squad he didn't know, and a squad that had no, um, no intent, no, um, real desire to play to his system's liking.

So, um, it could, it could end up being the exact same way with Spurs where Tudor comes in, he loses 3 games on the trot, fans are pissed off. Maybe he wins one here and there, but otherwise it's a disaster and he hits the road. Off you go. That remains to be seen. However, this was not a great start, but similar to Nancy, whose first match in charge was against Hearts Throw them up against the best team in the league, uh, see what happens.

Oh yeah, didn't really work out too well. Who could have seen that coming? Um, Eze would net again in the 61st. By that time it was 3-1 Arsenal. Victor Gyökeres gets a brace as well, 47th minute and 90 plus 4 minutes goals, put the icing on the cake.

The hilarious thing is Spurs were in for Eberechi Eze this summer trying to get him to sign, and at the 11th hour Arsenal came in. And basically it's been reported, dumbing it down a lot admittedly, but they asked, I'm assuming, Eberechi Eze's agent how much Spurs offered. Okay, we'll do a lot better than that. Yeah, and that was pretty much that, and that's all it takes. And here he is, he's scored 5 goals against Tottenham this season, 2 in this one.

Uh, 4-1 winners, maybe has sort of settled down. Uh, Gunner Nation, there, let's let everyone take a deep breath. They're not— I don't think they're gonna bottle this title. Man City are good, don't get me wrong, but I think this Arsenal team is better and I think they have what it takes. 10 matches left in the season, which will fly by.

Um, next match against Chelsea, that's going to be huge. That's going to be an important one. It'll be at home, um, for Arsenal. Chelsea sit 5th right now, uh, 3 points behind Man United. Um, if Arsenal take care of business, you get to that game March 22nd against Man City, and that could be your title decider.

Very well could be, depending on what Man City do as well. So that is my— if I'm betting on a horse, it's Arsenal. Um, I, I like what I've seen from them all year, and they've shown that even if they have some spells of rocky form, they can kind of steady the ship. And Man City are— every once in a while they'll lose a game they shouldn't, and I don't— I think that'll happen again. So yeah, that's where I'm at.

Okay, well, if anything interesting Um, this campaign here in the Premier League? Yeah, it's been a good one. Uh, obviously a, a title race is always interesting. You have the defending champions Liverpool who just have never really been at it this season. They sit 6th, um, which they can still finish in the Champions League spot, which wouldn't be a disaster, but they're 16 points off Arsenal, so they're not winning the title.

Then you have this relegation battle which gets more interesting by the day. West Ham sit 2 points adrift off Nottingham Forest. You're gonna get a big club relegated this year basically no matter what. Um, Wolves are done, Burnley is basically done, so it really comes down to this 18th spot. Will it be West Ham, Forest, Tottenham, maybe Leeds are still kind of, they are 6 points away from safety, but they're still in it.

So what is the path of a relegated team? If Spurs get relegated in the upcoming next year's campaign, what, what needs to happen So what, what to come back? Yeah, well, they'd be in the, the championship, the EFL Championship, which is the second tier, which is a fucking meat grinder of a league. 24 teams, 44 matches. So you're basically playing a weekend and a midweek almost for like almost 10 months.

Um, you— it is an insane meat grinder. Most of the teams are, are fairly even matched. There's not huge levels of disparity. Um, you go to some of the more far reaches of England, it's not as London-centric as the Prem is, so there's some long away trips and not so glamorous fixtures, um, and it is sort of notoriously hard to get out of. Now, if Spurs go down, I would imagine they walk the Championship just because they have an ungodly amount of money.

Now, they'll lose a lot of money for not being in the Premier League, but they have so much capital, they'll— though they would probably set the record for most points in a Championship. I would imagine they would come right back up, but that's still incredibly embarrassing that, um, they're even there if that were to happen. Now, we have seen big teams go down to the Championship and either not come back or struggle and spend a lot more time than they probably would want to spend there. Sunderland is a huge example. Of that.

They even went down to League One. Leeds, again, were a team that— they went from Champions League in the early 2000s to getting relegated, and they spent like 17 seasons or something out of the Premier League, or almost 20 years. So like, sometimes clubs fall on hard times when they get relegated, so it's really not something you want to be toying with. With. Yeah, at all.

Um, so for Spurs to be in that position where it's even an idea is bad, safe to say. Okay, let's, uh, let's move to Scottish.

Yes. All right, so, you know, the game that we're talking about I think has more to do with the title race than anything.

Um, the title race— let's just give this a little glance before we go into this game. Just when you think you know what is happening in Scotland, another curveball comes your way. So Hearts get a win against Falkirk Saturday, 1-0, kind of scrapped out a result there. And Rangers and Celtic have on paper 2 very winnable matches. Rangers away to bottom of the table Livingston, who are terrible, 13 points through 28 matches, um, and they were down 2-0 for most of that match and it took, um, some late heroics to get a draw, so they dropped points.

And then Celtic lay an egg at home to Hibernian. First time they've lost to Hibernian at home since 2010. Yeah, so not good. No, and it was a pretty rank rotten performance, even with, uh, Austin Trustee getting sent off, um, because he karate chopped a guy's arm in a tussle leading into a corner kick.

Yeah.

Celtic. Yeah. This, this has not been our best campaign, obviously. Yeah. It's kind of weird how a team can go from the upper echelon of Scottish football to, uh, are we gonna win?

Yeah. Or are we gonna like, you know, shit the bed? There is a kind of very real scenario where Celtic could finish 4th, which would be really bad because that wouldn't be good. When you talk about the Scottish coefficient and like trying to qualify to European competitions. If you're in 4th in Scotland for next year, like, you're starting at ground zero for European qualifiers.

Like, you are starting— you're going to be playing mid-July in Estonia.

Like, just these insane places to even get to, like, the Europa League or Europa Conference League. So they had a match today, which they, they actually won, but they were out basically anyways. So even if they won that, it, it really doesn't— they had to win by, um, at least 3 goals, which they only won 1-0. Yeah, so on aggregate they lost 4-2, so they're out. Um, But that is the Europa, Europa League.

Yeah, so kind of the second tier of European competition.

This is, um, sort of more of an existential problem for Scottish football, but that result solidified that, uh, Scotland as a league coefficient finished 18th in Europe for this season, which is bad. Um, meaning that after the summer of 2027, um, second place will have to go through 3 rounds just to qualify for the Europa Conference League, which is the lowest tournament in European European competition. That is not good. Yeah, that is not good. So we're gonna have to— this is as a league, you have to start going deeper into these European competitions, figure it the fuck out.

And Celtic have been horrible in Europe for years now, but everyone laid an egg this season. So that's a problem coming down the pipeline. But for this title race, I still— I genuinely don't know where it's gonna end up. And I actually think Motherwell— this is crazy. I mean, we're in March.

Motherwell is in the title race. It just seems so strange for me as an outsider and coming into this league just 4 short years ago to see a hearts of Midlothian team that just seems to be unbeatable.

Yeah, it's, it's weird. Um, it's one of those things where it kind of sort of is feeling like a team of destiny because even when they do lose, which they've lost a couple recently, Rangers or Celtic find a way to fuck something up. It's like, it's, it's, it's kind of like an outside force is manipulating Rangers and Celtic to suck. It's, it's like they're doing it, and I'm not— this is not like conspiracy, obviously this isn't happening, but it's like someone is trying with all their power to get Hearts to win the title. Because even when their form dips, Rangers or Celtic or both teams mess up and don't capitalize.

So if Celtic win their game in hand, they're still 3 points back on Hearts. Rangers are 4 points back on Hearts. And then you have this Motherwell team who we can talk about this match against St. Mirren. Obviously blowout, but suddenly they are kind of in this thing because they will play Rangers, Hearts, and Celtic again. And if they keep their form up, all of a sudden you're kind of talking about maybe, maybe it's sort of a smash and grab where no one was talking about them all year and Oh my God, here they are.

They could actually win the title. Yeah.

So let's get into this St. Mirren, uh, v Motherwell match. Um, a very rainy day on the pitch to start. Yes. Um, in the 14th minute, Elijah Just Uh, goal, 1-0 Motherwell. Um, and so let's talk about quickly how the red cards are flying and not the first red card, uh, went to VAR and then was was rescinded.

And then we also had another red card late in the match, which was, according to the booth, was not— should not have been a red card. So both of the red cards I thought were very, very harsh. The first one I actually saw more justification for, and Uh, and that one was the one that they took back. Yeah, so the co-commentary was— I mean, he had lost his mind, which was kind of fair. Um, speaking of red cards, in that Arsenal-Tottenham, there was the, the penalty that Arsenal were given.

That's the weakest fucking penalty I've ever seen in my life. And the co-com— the one thing about the Premier League that pisses me off is the commentary never have anything bad to say about the Premier League. And the commentary is like, well, there was a little bit of a shove. There was a little bit of a shove. No, there wasn't.

He put his hands on the back of a guy and he fell and got a fucking penalty. Meanwhile, in Scotland, when there's a bad red card, which would be a red card 10 times out of 10 in the Premier League, I mean, he lost his mind. The game is gone. There's no way that that's a red card. Just a complete disaster.

So funny to see the difference there. But yeah, yeah, I, I don't know where you're at on the red cards, but I thought they were— they were in this match. It was— that was— this is the talk of the match, was the officiating. Yeah. And you— I suppose you could sympathize with the booth Because they, they were not having, they were not having it.

In the 28th minute, penalty was given to Motherwell. VAR checked it. They said it was good. And that was a, I thought, I suppose it was okay because the guy, keeper came out of the box and swept the guy out basically. Basically done in the ball.

That was pretty straightforward. And, uh, Tawanda Mashwanise, Nets for Motherwell. That's a name that you're gonna hear, you've already heard a lot of if you've been following closely. He has, um, trying to pull up his stats quickly, 14 goals in the Premiership this year and 2 assists. Um, whether or not he's at Motherwell next year Uh, that would be someone they're probably really hoping to keep a hold of, although maybe they'll cash in on him.

Um, fantastic season from him, but you get that 52nd minute, um, red card. Motherwell already up 3-0 by then, and that pretty much takes any competition out of the match. Mm-hmm. I just can't believe that Motherwell look so impressive. Yeah, Motherwell, they're playing probably the sexiest brand of soccer in Scotland right now because it sure as hell ain't Celtic or Rangers.

Yeah, tell you that much. So in the— I have a 30— 38th minute note here. Red card to Gogic, um, went to VAR, reduces to yellow. Um, and then a red card to Richard King. Um, there was a lot of cards flying in this match.

Yeah, so odd, odd officiating, which is kind of what you expect in Scotland. Has this match come down to poor, uh, refereeing? I mean, there was poor refereeing. I think Motherwell win no matter what. Yeah, they're up 3-0 before the red card that stuck.

Happens. So the game was— it was kind of game, set, match then. Yeah, St. Mirren aren't particularly good. No, but you, you really don't like to see that kind of— no, you know, the, the booth clearly was not happy about either call. No, and I don't think either of them were really justified.

Yeah. Um, But that is kind of how it goes in Scotland. Yeah, usually the decisions kind of leave you scratching your head more often than not. Um, Motherwell just— they basically killed this thing. I mean, 5-0.

Um, St. Mirren didn't really have a chance in this match.

Um, although they played I thought they played a fair, uh, fair game in defense.

Uh, sort of. I mean, again, once, once it was 3-0 and the red card comes in, that killed really any momentum. They, they tried, they tried, but Motherwell were just way, way, way better. Um, and you look at the fixtures coming up for, for the league here. Um, Motherwell have Dundee United next.

That should be a win, you would think. And then Dundee before taking on Celtic March 14th. So if Motherwell win both of those games heading into Celtic Park, um, look out because that could be all of a sudden, um, a very interesting match. Meanwhile, Celtic and Rangers go head-to-head on Sunday. Um, if you were a betting man, where, where do you think the 3 points are headed, uh, in that one?

Or maybe a draw is what you would expect, but I, yeah, hard, hard to say at this point. And You know, it depends on who the referee's gonna be. Cheating John Beaton is the ref. Yeah, I don't really get into the whole like, uh, fucking Celtic are always getting cheated thing, but, um, that is kind of how I operate as a sports fan. However, that probably doesn't help that he is the ref.

It is at Ibrox away, so that's gonna be tough. Celtic have mostly gotten destroyed at Ibrox in recent years. Um, I don't— I struggle to see how Celtic get a win on Sunday. I think a draw is kind of the best you could hope for right now. Which if Motherwell beat Aberdeen or not, if Hearts beat Aberdeen Saturday, they are loving if it's a draw because they'll just extend their lead on both teams.

Yeah. So one thing that I can recollect from this season is you never know what Celtic team is going to show up. Yeah. That is true. You know, we've won some matches in late play.

Yeah. So anything can happen at this point. I think it would take some magic to win at Rangers Sunday. I mean, Schmeichel cannot start, by the way. If he starts, we're fucked.

I'm telling you, we're fucked if he starts. And we don't, we don't know how that, how that all goes down. Martin O'Neill, if you're listening, If you start Schmeichel, I guarantee you we will fucking lose. Yeah. Uh, Sinisalo, the backup, started today in the Europa League.

Guess how many goals he conceded?

Zero. Yeah, yeah, clean sheet. So maybe we should put him in the box. Yeah, I— if I— I think Schmeichel will start, but Jesus Christ. Uh, bring out your rosary if he's in between the sticks, uh, if it's your inclination, because that could get ugly.

Uh, so that's 7 AM Sunday here stateside. I'll be watching that. I know you'll get to it as well.

And then on the Premier League side, I gotta say it's going to be Arsenal again. Arsenal-Chelsea. Next time out. We'll see, because we're gonna have an IndyCar, uh, race review and F1 predictions, so it'll be a little tight on the agenda. But we'll definitely talk Celtics, so if you're, um, interested in that, that'll be there.

So packed show. Like I said, congrats, we made it out of the purgatory of the open wheel racing offseason, and we will begin. And we're at the end, so no more messing with the, uh, faulty cord. I— yeah, I'll have to figure it out here. Might be the headset.

I— the cord probably is not the problem. I think it's the input here. It's usually not the headphones themselves. Yeah, that's usually a cord issue. Or, uh, I don't know.

Yeah, we'll figure it out. You have 7 days to sort it. All right, with that, I think we will get out of here. Yep.

All right.

Right, so for executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane, copyright 2026. Studio 2025 bids you adieu. We will see you next time on Tackling the Chicane.