Italian Grand Prix 2026 Recap: Antonelli Wins at Monza

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This is tackling the chicane.

Yeah, I, uh, a lot of sound effects, a lot of buttons, a lot of buttons, a lot of The screen is quite small, but I can make it bigger, but then I can have to go between certain things. No one cares, and I don't think anyone probably realizes that there is a potential delay in the sound effects, but we're working on it.

So here we go.

All right, well, another week has passed us by, in which time we've wrapped up the 2026 IndyCar season. So that, uh, is done and over with. Seems like it just started. Um, so of course we will discuss everything from Laguna Seca And, uh, already maybe some silly season rumors and whatnot as we look forward to 2027 in IndyCar, the final year with this current chassis. Um, of course we will discuss the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which if you're an Italian probably went pretty well for you considering, uh, won.

Kimi Antonelli takes home the victory at his home race. So good scenes there. On the soccer side of things, uh, match day 3 in the Premier League, kind of got a decent idea of maybe, um, maybe our title front runner. Uh, spoilers, it's Arsenal. I don't think that really Uh, surprises anyone?

Your defending champion. Um, and then 2 match days have gone by, uh, well, like 1.5 match days in the Scottish Premiership. Celtic have managed in maybe not, uh, bombastic fashion, but have managed a couple wins since the last time we recorded. And we'll look ahead to this weekend where we have the first Glasgow Derby of this season, but in the League Cup quarterfinals, not, uh, the Premiership. So we'll look forward to that as we head into the week, uh, next week.

But for now, I think we're gonna kick it off with, uh, some IndyCar final race of the season at Laguna Seca in California. Of course, we knew, uh, we probably actually knew about 2 or 3 months ago that Alex Palou was winning the championship. Um, this race felt very much like, um, what happens when the champion has already been crowned. It, it sort of lacked a lot of the intensity that you would see in a normal IndyCar race. But we had a winless streak broken in Laguna Seca, um, and from my perspective means that only David Maloukas did not take home a victory for the Penske team this year.

So what are your thoughts from Laguna Seca? Um, it was, it was an okay race. Like you said, I love the track. Uh, storied history there, right? So one of the, one of the worst tracks to watch on a flat screen because the elevation change at Laguna Seca is amazing.

And the Corkscrew is the most famous sort of sector there. And I think it's 80 feet, 60 to 80 feet change in elevation from the top to the bottom of that turn, which is almost like a roller coaster. So I would love to see a race there in person. Um, because you can't really— you can't get the 3D perspective on TV. But it was, it was an okay race.

I mean, like you said, when you, when you get to the end of the IndyCar campaign and the champion's already been crowned and there's really not— there wasn't a ton of, um, like points battles necessarily going on. Yeah, not really. Um, I guess we could talk just briefly about the overall results of the Drivers Championship this year. Um, and as far as like the top 10, do you see anybody in this top 10 that you didn't think was going to be in the top 10? Or, um, can you just read it off to me?

Yeah, yeah. No, it's— forgot my screen. No, it's fine. So Palou takes the first spot. Kirkwood, number 2.

Christian Lundgaard, number 3. Pato O'Ward finishes number 4. David Maloukas, number 5. Scott McLaughlin, 6. Marcus Ericsson, number 7.

Josef Newgarden, 8. Felix Rosenqvist, number 9. Rinus VK, number 10. Um, yeah, a couple interesting ones there. First off, Rinus VK driving for arguably the worst team in Junkos Hollinger.

He's now gotten 2 shit cars into really good positions these past 2 years. Remember, he was driving for Dale Coyne last year. Um, so somebody give him an actually good ride. He's never actually had a good ride in IndyCar. And has a win and is always very quick, it seems.

Um, wouldn't have thought Lundgaard was gonna finish 3rd. I, I wouldn't have, uh, expected him to have such a good year. I think it just shows the stupidity of McLaren for basically kicking him to the curb for a dinosaur and a guy that has 2 wins and 8 or 9 seasons in IndyCar. So, uh, that one continues to perplex me from a McLaren standpoint. Um, but kudos to Lundgaard, and I think he'll have a good ride next year, maybe Ganassi.

Yeah, I don't know what— I'm not sure what the overarching plan is for McLaren. Wants to take over the world, okay? They just announced— well, maybe they didn't announce it yet, but I was listening to an interview with Zak Brown. They're coming to IMSA with a prototype car next year. Yeah.

So now they've got strong presence in just about every, every sector of racing. Um, I don't know what's going to happen with that driver change. I, I can't imagine the guy's going to come in and light the world on fire for For McLaren, but who knows?

Yeah, Malukas, 5th in the Drivers Championship, just didn't have a really great year. I don't know about that. I'm going to push back on that a little. I wouldn't say— well, some misfortune. Yeah, I think we have talked about it about 10 times now, but to put a bow on it.

Obviously probably as unlucky as anyone ever at the Indy 500 to lose in such a fashion. Yeah. Um, and then a plenum fire at Milwaukee costed him a win there. Did wreck a couple cars, but incredibly unlucky not to have a race win or 2, um, this season given the fact that He was the top finishing Penske driver this season. Uh, McLaughlin and Newgarden both below him.

So not a, not a bad year by any means. Um, you, you would have thought maybe he would have a win by now.

Yeah, so I don't know, we'll see what happens, uh, in the offseason. They're gonna continue to test the '28 car, which means— is 2027 hopefully not going to be like the lame duck year of the last car where there's not a whole lot of development happening with that car because everyone's shifting their focus towards the next car? That hap— that's kind of the transition phase of racing, is we're gonna kind of wave goodbye to this 13 or 14-year-old chassis, and most of the effort is going to be on the new car, probably. I would say if you're sitting here going into the month of May next year and Palou has a championship lead of any kind, I think it'll pretty quickly become a kind of a forgettable year. And you know what, so be it if it has to be that way, uh, before we usher in a new era.

That's fine. Yeah, I— look, we're at 4 in a row for Palou. It's the exact same car next year, so I don't see any reason why he's not gonna win it next year. Now, I, I would like to think it's not going to be a blowout again. I think you're going to see at least a little bit more of a fight from perhaps a Kyle Kirkwood.

I think if Lundgaard ends up at Chip Ganassi, that becomes really interesting. Um, and Penske seemed like they've turned the page from their completely terrible season last year and the first half of this year being Okay. Um, it seems like they've figured it out. They've finally won on a road course with Scott McLaughlin here at Laguna Seca. So I would expect at least Malukas and McLaughlin to be pretty damn competitive next year.

I'm not so sure about Newgarden, but yeah, that's kind of my hope for '27 is that yes, it, it could very well end up being a lame duck year like you say, but Hopefully the championship is more competitive.

Mick Schumacher, please report to the MSR paddock. Mick Schumacher to the MSR paddock. Wow. I think that this is gonna be a huge opportunity. Mick showed a little promise on the ovals this year.

Mm-hmm. Not— I'm not gonna can anything on a Um, Ray Hall Letterman. Obviously this team's great history with Bobby, they just, they can't seem to dig themselves out of the hole for some reason. Yeah. And I think if Mick goes to MSR, we might see a com— a completely different showing from him, especially as I said, you know, he, he really kind of And it's no, no secret amongst the IndyCar crew of people that follow the, the series that he, he did really well on ovals this year.

Yeah, he— I think he was a lot better on ovals than what many people expected. Um, I don't know if he ended up winning Rookie of the Year because, uh, who was it that wrecked out? Hauger wrecked out of this one very early. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I think Mick Schumacher is going to be someone to at least kind of pay attention to next year.

Um, I think he showed that he belongs in the series, and frankly, at a Rahal team that just isn't very good, you put him in a car that, uh, in theory is the one that Felix Rosenqvist road this year. Um, and I think that could be very interesting. Yeah, it was Hauger that won this year, so he still ended up— yeah, Dennis Hauger is an interesting one because we don't really know if he has a seat next year. Um, Dale Coyne, uh, hasn't made any, you know, effort to I guess, show that he wants to re-sign Hauger. I'm assuming Grosjean returns to Dale Coyne.

And, you know, we have of course the Indy Next champion now, Nikita Johnson, who probably wants a ride in IndyCar. So I don't know what happens to Dennis Hauger. I would hope he can find a ride given that, you know, he dominated Indy Next, uh, in 2025 and showed a decent amount of speed. This year Rookie of the Year. So yeah, let's, uh, let's just go down to the, the bottom of sort of the table here.

Um, aside from the fact that some of these guys bring a lot of money to these teams, um, I don't see— I mean, Stingray Rob's gonna stay where he's at probably. Um, always continues to be a little bit of a, a lightning bolt, uh, for my viewing. Always seems to be kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time. Louie Foster for Ray Hall. I thought that he did a fair job this year.

He did get a pole. Yeah, so moments of of speed. What happens with Graham, we don't know. Yeah, he's teetered on the brink of maybe becoming something else in the, in the fold at Rahal. Yeah, I don't know what happens with Rahal next year as a team and Graham.

Um, I think we're getting 2 more cars next year. Dreyer and Rheinbold have a full-time effort next year. With Connor Daly. I believe Acura is in the fold with, um, oh shit, one of, one of either, uh, Ganassi or something like that. Acura is having a team under the umbrella of another team, basically.

So I think we'll be at 27 next year. Do we know which driver, um, Mick is going to supplant Have they, have they announced that? Well, Rosenqvist is going to— Rosenqvist is going to McLaren. So yeah, Mick slots in there, and Rosenqvist, that'll be interesting. Back to McLaren, right?

I should say, right, right. Which it just looks really kind of silly from a McLaren perspective that you're bringing back a guy that you basically fired not even, what, 3 years ago now? So Um, strange one for me in, in Dixon. Just, that really doesn't make any sense at all to me. But maybe you give him a— I don't know, I guess a competitive car.

I don't know how it could be more competitive than a Ganassi. And I think there's eyes that he drives in IMSA for them at some point. I think that was part of the, the bargain. Could have been, could have been, because they're putting a lot of chips into that. Um, obviously those cars are— that's top flight in IMSA, is the prototype car.

And, uh, maybe that was, maybe that was part of the gig. Pretty sure it was. Yeah. So there you have it. Uh, another delightful IndyCar series wraps, and, uh, we'll keep a bit of an eye on development of the new car throughout the offseason.

Potential news stories that might or may or may not happen. But yeah, a fun, a fun series and a great series to watch. And if you are tuning into this podcast as an F1 fan, I would implore you to check out some NTT IndyCar racing. I think you'll be pretty happy with what you find there. Um, just the series as a whole is, is grown leaps and bounds, so good for them.

Yes indeed. All right, let's move on, uh, to I suppose some European open-wheel action in Formula 1. Of course, we were at the Temple of Speed in Monza, uh, this past weekend. Uh, said it in the intro, but of course Kimi Antonelli kind of storms back from way back in the grid to get a win in this one, further extending his championship lead. It seems with each passing round we are coming closer and closer to a 19-year-old world champion.

Uh, I won't put all my eggs in that basket yet, but it's looking pretty likely. Um, but this weekend started off more interesting than most. Pierre Gasly of Alpine on the pole at Monza. Yeah, so I believe his first pole, maybe. I don't know.

Well, he drove for Red Bull, so I don't know. Yeah. Um, but nonetheless, I mean kind of puts a dash of spice into the weekend to see somebody on the pole, um, like Gasly. Uh, and overall, overall, this, this GP may— it's probably up there in the top 1 or 2 races that we've witnessed this year as far as just overtaking. Yeah, good battles.

I mean Mercedes, they battled back and forth.

Piastri battled with Hamilton, sort of.

Interestingly enough, one of the better GPs to watch as far as just kind of how the race developed. And I guess I have a question that popped into my head while I was watching this race. Are we witnessing the up-and-coming of a great here with Kimi Antonelli? Will he supersede Lewis Hamilton? Well, I mean, listen, he's young.

Yeah, he's talented. Mercedes has put a lot of effort into this driver and car. He seems to be one of those kind of, you know, transcendent drivers where position doesn't really affect, um, the outcome. Started 19th. Um, strategy played a part, of course, but, you know, to come back from 19th position and to win the GP And he just seems to be unstoppable as far as race pace.

Yeah, um, I suppose my answer is more boring than maybe what you're looking for, but I, I think it is just too early to make any sort of sweeping judgments about, you know, is he the next great. Uh, it's not that rare to have a really good young driver. Uh, remember a young Max Verstappen? Causing a lot of fanfare. Granted, not winning championships at 19.

What I will say is I think we have enough evidence to suggest that Kimi Antonelli is more than likely going to win the championship this year. So that's one on the board at 19.

Just to entertain your your question, I guess. I don't foresee a, a Lewis Hamilton 7-time champion career, um, just because I think that's just super, super hard to do. There's a reason why only one person has done that. Um, I think he can definitely collect some championships. If you ride this Mercedes wave, I think he can get it.

And he's shown that he's not just a, like, a good youngster. I mean, he was— he's kicking George Russell's ass, who's been at Mercedes for what, 6 years now? So I think that there is a chance that, you know, when Antonelli's career is done, you're talking a maybe top 5-ish driver of all time. Uh, but for now I will say much too early on that one. Yeah.

Uh, okay. Um, I just see sort of sparks. Like, he's very calculated, very calm in the car, which, yeah, you know, for being just a couple of years in. I think what kind of separates him from even like a young Max Verstappen is you don't really see him getting a lot of wrecks. You don't really see him make a ton of huge mistakes.

He doesn't get overly aggressive and cause shit to happen. He's easy on tires, stuff like that, where, uh, I think that could definitely benefit him in the future. You don't see him, you know, Or at least you don't hear him bitching on the radio too much. I was just gonna say, he's not a complainer. No.

So I think that certainly plays into his hands. Um, you know, what separates Antonelli compared to, let's say, like a Charles Leclerc, who has kind of been this always the bridesmaid, never the bride of F1 in his career. Well, we kind of saw it here at Monza.

Charles Leclerc, when he gets angry, a lot of times leads to mistakes, and in this case, uh, slamming into the wall very early on into this race. One of the more violent wrecks we've seen, uh, in a while in F1. Um, it's kind of crazy just how safe those cars are now, where he just walks out completely fine despite the fact that he slammed into a wall and, uh, a tire barrier. Yeah, when I saw that initial hit, I thought, ooh, yeah, that could be a lot of trouble. But as you said, it was a softer barrier still, um, at a pretty decent clip.

Um, but yeah, I, I agree. Uh, the, the safety of the car is, is paramount in this series apparently. You know, I don't think that would have resul— that result would have been the same even maybe 5 years ago. Um, so yeah, the only other note I have on this race is that Russell dodged a huge bullet because he had a potential yellow flag infringement. Um, and it took— seemed like it took forever for the stewards to make their ruling, but had that penalty come in, it may have been as much as 10 seconds.

Yeah, and that would have dinged him. Uh, well, I guess in the end he had a decent enough gap on Verstappen, but would have made it, uh, very much less competitive on, uh, Antonelli's side of things. Uh, yeah, but you mentioned it already, some good wheel-to-wheel action between Antonelli and Russell. There was some team orders from, from Mercedes kind of midway through the race, which took a little bit of the steam out of it, but they did race, uh, for a decent amount. Um, Verstappen is still kind of just hanging around there, uh, getting podiums.

Uh, here and there. I think, you know, give Red Bull a couple years here to develop this car, and I think Verstappen could very easily be back in a championship hunt, uh, for real. Uh, and then McLaren seems like still your second best team at this point. Uh, Norris, Piastri, 4 or 5. Hamilton, the only Ferrari left in the race, 6th.

Pierre Gasly turns the pole, converts it to A 7th place finish, which isn't too bad for Alpine, who, uh, had both their drivers in the points. Colapinto in 9th, Arvid Lindblad and Yuki Tsunoda, who's filling in for, um, an injured— um, isn't he filling in for Liam Lawson, or am I— no, Liam Lawson's driving the Red Bull. Well, he's filling in for someone. Oh, Isaac Hadjar. Oh, okay.

Yeah, so I knew, I knew someone was hurt. So yeah, Yuki Tsunoda gets in the points. So double points for Racing Bulls and Alpine. I don't think those teams are complaining about that at all. Yeah, so if we get— if we go down to the rest of the best, best of the rest, the rest, best of the rest, um, Alpine sits in 6th.

Position at 62 points, 5th for Racing Bulls at 75. That's a pretty close run right there. And then Haas bringing up sort of a 7th place position, um, 41 points below Alpine. So a potential for Haas, if they can get in the top 10 in this last part of the campaign, to potentially close in on Alpine? Probably not.

Um, but, uh, yeah, so I think the Constructors Championship is pretty much wrapped at this point, um, with Mercedes on top at 468 versus Ferrari at 346. McLaren sits 287, so I don't see any real movement happening there. Coming up, we have the Spanish Grand Prix. New track, don't know if you're aware of that. No, it's in Madrid.

It is a hybrid street enclosed road course facility. Okay, um, doesn't seem too popular with fans like most new tracks are, so we will check it out, but I'll have to make sure to tune into a practice session just to kind of get a feel for it. Yeah, I mean, just taking a look at the overview, very technical, extremely technical. Um, not a lot of straight run on this one. Um, 5.4 kilometers.

This is the first year, 57 laps, 308.3 for the total race distance. But just looking at this track Um, I don't see a lot of passing potential here. Maybe 2, 2 places, 2 sectors that we might see. Yeah, I was watching, uh, like a virtual tour of it, and there is an overtake zone. Um, that's like— they literally say on F1's Instagram that it's an overtake zone.

And then there's a really big braking point kind of like right at the end, like super slow corner. Which may or may not be, um, a place to pass. So we'll see. I mean, I'm looking forward to it just for the sake of it being new, but you just never know with these new tracks until they race.

So sector 1 is a bit of a straight with a sort of a right sweeping, very mellow curve, and then it goes like a heartbeat. There's a kink right there at the end of that, and I think that's probably what you were speaking of. Um, but yeah, so we'll see what happens here in the Spanish GP coming up this weekend. And of course, we have practices on the 11th and 12th, qualifying on the 12th as well, and then the race at 0900 on September 13th. All right, well, I think that will do it for the world of racing for this episode.

Another GP to discuss next time, and, uh, of course IndyCar is done, so sort of lightens the load. We'll see if, um, wondering if, uh, the NASCAR playoffs have heated up at all. I don't know, I have to check in on that. Yeah, I haven't really put an eyeball on that. So, all right, well, let's, let's move on then.

We are now into the soccer segment of the show, and I think really no better place to start than the Premier League for this episode. We had what many billed to be a potential title matchup in London this past weekend as Arsenal welcomed Chelsea to the Emirates. Now, if you've been living under a rock, I will inform you that of course Arsenal are your defending Premier League champions after Uh, finally besting Manchester City. Um, last season, of course, they made it to the Champions League final as well, which they lost on penalties to PSG. Uh, and Chelsea are a new look team under their new manager Xabi Alonso, who you may remember, uh, won the German Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen Uh, now 3 seasons ago to break that Bayern Munich dominance.

Um, he had a stint at Real Madrid which did not end up working out for him, and he is now settled at Chelsea, who are a mostly new-look team from last year. Still some names you'll remember like Cole Palmer, Reece James, Emi Martinez transferred from Aston Villa to Chelsea. You'll know him from being Argentina's goalkeeper. So have sort of strengthened up the defense in goal for Chelsea. Arsenal, it's still most of the players you know and love.

Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, with some new reinforcements. Christos Solís. From Greece. Uh, he is one of their big signings from the summer. Also strengthened in defense with Ezri Konsa, who they brought in from Aston Villa.

But, uh, this one, yeah, kind of billed as maybe 2 teams that are gonna be there or thereabouts at the end of the season for the title race. And, um, of course Chelsea kind of throw a sucker punch at the beginning there, but To me, it still seems like this will be a season where it's Arsenal's to lose. Within 2, uh, Chelsea goal. Rodgers off the free kick, um, I believe it was like 1:30 something. So very quickly.

Yeah. Uh, like as you said, kind of a punch in the face. Uh, in the 12th minute, Arsenal potentially scores off the set piece. VAR says offside, no goal. Uh, and then in the 25th minute, um, Arsenal scores to equalize, and it was Kai Havertz.

Havertz, yep. Oh, got it. Nice. Yeah, Kai Havertz, interesting player, um, because the club he played for before Arsenal was you guessed it, Chelsea. Um, and he scored the, uh, game-winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final for Chelsea when they took down Man City.

Um, yeah, Kai Havertz has really exploded into one of the better players in the, in the Premier League, which is, um, maybe a little surprising after his Chelsea stint. But for me, when Arsenal tie it up, it feels like, okay, we, we got the, you know, the sucker punch out of the way. But clearly Arsenal, I think, a tick better than, than Chelsea. Yeah, 4 minutes of stoppage in the first half of this game. In the 48th, um, Neto dings one off the left post for Chelsea, nearly in but no goal there.

And then the half, um, We play on, uh, through the 50th minute. Um, Odegaard. Yeah, I am 2 for 2. That's how I would— that's our anglicized, Anglicanized, whatever way of saying it. But yeah, yeah, so 2-1 Arsenal.

This one ends up in a final at 2-1, but, um, painted by the commentary as one of the best matches so far this year. Yeah, I was even thinking when I was watching this, um, I didn't watch it live, so you do lose a little bit of the, the gravitas if you're not watching it live. But, um, yeah, I, I can— they can kind of lose me sometimes because this is a specific crew just broadcasting to the US. Sometimes I feel like they are very obviously hyping up the product even if it's not quite to that level on the pitch. I, I didn't really— it was a super intense match.

I think both of these teams are really good, and, and like I said, probably both gonna be in the top 4 by the end of this year. I didn't get the feeling that, wow, I'm watching the best match of the season. I don't know, it's a little early. Yeah, I don't know. You know, it's— we've only played 3 matches, so I guess out of the 3 match days?

Sure, maybe it was. I completely understand the kind of brewing some interest during the matches, especially when we're trying to get more viewership from the US and they're trying to finally make United States viewers of the— of this game understand the nuance of, of what this game is. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it, it was, it was a fine match to watch. I did watch— I watched the replay obviously as well.

Um, but looking at the table, interestingly enough, I believe your pick for your second team here— yeah— is currently sitting Uh, in 3rd place. So I'm on a bit of a tear with my 2nd team selection, at least in England. Um, we'll talk about Scotland here in a few, but yeah, Hull City have been sort of the story of the year thus far. Of course, you know, 3 matches in, so let's not get carried away. Um, but yeah, they You know, are on 7 points, won their first 2 matches, drew nil-nil with Aston Villa.

Super dull game. Newly promoted as well. Newly promoted. Yeah. Yeah.

Super boring game against Aston Villa. I mean, who would have thunk it at nil-nil? But the wider sort of storyline here is that Hull City look like a damn good team. And they've played 3 matches in the Premier League. They've conceded 0 goals.

Now, one of the big problems with newly promoted teams every year is that defensively they are usually very, very bad. So if you're Hull City and you're newly promoted, the way to already be ahead of the relegation curb is to have a really solid defense, and they're showing 3 matches in that perhaps maybe they have one of the better defenses in the league. Um, so nothing really to report on from the match against Aston Villa, uh, but just a really solid performance for Hull City. Um, and I will turn it over to you for your Brentford Bees. Well, uh, did not get to witness anything, uh, vis-à-vis TV, but, um, here we are sitting, you know, well, I believe in 5th place.

Um, yeah, let's see, trying to see what the last match— what was the last match here? Sunderland. Yeah, I don't have it on here, but Regardless, they drew Sunderland 1-1. I just saw like the goals from this one. It was, uh, I, I'm really enjoying Peacock's Goal Rush feature where they show a game and then if other goals happen in the other games, you see that.

So that was kind of my, um, understanding of this game. Uh, they go up in the 57th minute, uh, and then Sunderland win a penalty in the 82nd and convert it. 2 teams that are probably roughly around the same kind of skill level in terms of where they're going to end up at the end of the season. Yeah, Brentford sitting pretty in 5th place again after just 3 matches, but we've had some teams struggle. Not, um, it should be mentioned Tottenham are in the relegation zone.

Um, after a nil-nil draw against Nottingham Forest over the weekend, Tottenham have scored zero goals in 3 matches this season, which is the first time they haven't scored in, uh, league play in 3 matches— it for the first 3 matches of a season since 1974. So they continue to be making history, but for all the wrong seasons. Yeah. Uh, so I guess to, uh, ice the cake here on the Premier League segment, we're 3 matches in, so very early. We've, we've witnessed, uh, Arsenal now, uh, for the podcast.

Do you see anyone seriously challenging Arsenal for the title? It's too early. Too early. It's too early to tell. I mean I would love to see one of these 3, 4, 5 teams show up.

Um, I can't say, I can't predict anything at this point. Um, my head is spinning watching a second team. Yeah, in this league. So I'm trying to get a grasp on that, and, um, I think that'll kind of bell curve off a bit as racing stops and the league plays on. But yeah, I think interestingly enough, having chosen a team strictly based on kit, probably not in a bad position at this point with Brentford in number 5 in the standings and playing pretty well.

As far as I understand. Yeah, yeah, they look very solid and not an easy team to defeat, um, it should be said. So Brentford travel away to Bournemouth Saturday, um, tricky one. Bournemouth have dropped a lot of points, but, um, a lot of points from winning positions. So they're one of those teams that if you can— if they can cut out conceding late goals, they would probably be in a lot better spot.

Right now. Uh, as for Hull City, a tough one away to Chelsea. Um, we're gonna need the defense to keep it rolling against a free-scoring Chelsea team who I think look really damn good right now, and I think could very easily be sniffing around a title challenge this year. Um, but if not this year, potentially next. For a serious title fight.

Um, the box office fixture for this weekend, it is the Manchester Derby. Man United taking on Man City, that's from Old Trafford Sunday, 11:30 AM Eastern. Um, other than that, Tottenham-Everton in the match of who can be more shit. Liverpool-Fulham. Fulham look like a relegation candidate right now, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

Um, but I think that's, that's all for the Premier League. Uh, and we'll shift to the north of the border here. Like I said, we kind of had one and a half matches, um, this since we last recorded here in Scotland. Rangers and Celtic played midweek to make up, uh, matches that were postponed for their European exploits. But, uh, we'll start off with, uh, Celtic's away trip to St. Mirren.

And to me, probably the first, like, truly stiff test of, of the season, at least in league play. Um, we know St. Mirren, especially away to St. Mirren, is always a tough one, and it proved to be that again. Yeah. So as the match develops here in the 19th, um, we have a handball penalty. Yeah.

Scales. Yeah. Kind of a no-doubter. Yeah. I mean, sometimes the arm goes out, the ball hits the fucking hand.

There's nothing you can do about it.

Um, Agrafiotes. Yeah, I was gonna say your guess is as good as mine on that one. Newly acquired, uh, Greek player for St. Mirren. Yeah, I was, uh, not aware of his, his newness to St. Mirren, but yeah, brought in from, uh, well, uh, Wehen Wiesbaden. Can you guess the country of that?

Is it Sitz Germans? Yes, it is. Uh, they are Stefan. They're a third division German team. Um, so Saint Mirren really digging deep for this signing.

Nicholas Agrafiotis, and I'm sure we're not saying that right, but I think that's right. Fuck it. Yeah, I think that's 100% right. Okay, well, you're more confident than me. Uh, so Celtic would go down 1-0 at the half.

It, it seemed sort of a laborious first half performance for Celtic, like they were kind of stuck in first gear a little bit. It was a decently rotated side, um, with Liam Scales playing left back. Of course, he gives away that penalty. Yang on the left wing, who Yang is gone for the Asian Games for the next 2 weeks, so that's why you didn't see him yesterday for Celtic. Um, Camilo Durán, it looked like was gonna equalize in, in— I think that was the first half, uh, my memory not serving me well, I guess.

Yeah, it was, it was. And ruled offside, a little dubious for me. I didn't feel like that was Well, the St. Mirren keeper came way out of the box on this one. And I think what happened was he just got ahead of the second defender. They ended up inside the net.

So yeah, no goal of VAR.

So we're 1-0 to bring this one to the end of the first half with a 1-0 lead. To 0 St. Mirren lead. This is the most dimly lit, uh, most weird place I've ever watched, uh, uh, a match. It is very dark. Um, I don't know if they just don't have enough light poles at this place.

So there is a standard of lighting to be a Premiership club, so they meet that apparently. But doesn't it Didn't it seem like super dark? It did seem pretty dark. I mean, it was a night game. It was an 8 o'clock local time kickoff, which is later than usual.

Even the stands, there's like— you couldn't really see much. Yeah, I just want— I'm a visualizer, people. I visualize this was the darkest. I mean, literally the darkest match I've ever watched on TV as far as being lit. I— maybe no one cares, I don't know.

Second appearance for the Celtic away kit this season, and that's probably— I do like it though, collection at some point. I thought the same. Yeah, uh, very sharp. Yeah, I like it. Um, St. Mirren's lead would not last all too long in the second half.

Liam Scales with a pretty damn good header off of a corner kick Um, to make it 1-1, and then Yang on a fast break to put it away in the 68th minute. Yang has looked, dare I say, very good for Celtic this season. He's always a player that, um, seemingly someone is pissed off at, whether it be you or me or someone at PJ's, but he has really found some nice form this year. Yeah, and then we had a potential 3rd score here in the 93rd, uh, over stoppage time. Yeah, um, Mahuka, uh, yeah, I'm— I don't know how we're doing the pronunciation yet.

He's a new signing brought in on loan from Chelsea.

Um, I'll come back to you on that one. Yeah, for next week. VAR, no goal. So, and that was, uh, a dubious decision too. VAR just isn't good in Scotland.

I think we all can agree on that. Uh, they don't have the— they don't have the definition, they don't have the 400 camera angles like in the Premier League. And it's— I don't know, I don't know how you could come to the conclusion that he was offside when the referee doesn't even draw the lines on the video screen. And originally on the field, it's ruled as a goal. I just It doesn't make a lot of sense.

I mean, it would have been nice to put a nail in this one, but yeah, Celtics still victorious at 2-1 for the final of this very dark, very dimly lit match. Yeah, 8 o'clock local time kickoff, which is as late as it gets for a Saturday match. Um, Camilo Durán with another assist in this one, Benjamin Negrin with an assist, Yang Gang with a goal. St. Mirren, uh, have fallen on a little bit tougher times since their good start to the campaign. Well, my second team, Motherwell, um, not a great showing away to Rangers.

Rangers are kings of the 1-0 win recently, uh, where they beat Motherwell at the weekend 1-0. That goal coming from Nadiri.

But why the hell is he not showing up on the? Here we go. He was subbed on in the eighth minute. That's why. Ryan Don Nadiri, 23-year-old German.

He makes it one nil for Rangers, and that's pretty much all she wrote on that one. Rangers left it super late yesterday against Saint Mirren. Uh, where, uh, Bojan Mijovski scores in the 90th minute to take all 3 points. Um, Celtic, uh, find a way to win away to St. Johnston 1-0. Mika Bauer, new signing there, gets his first goal for Celtic.

Really like the way that Mika Bauer looks so far in this young season.

Um, I'm gonna kick it over to you for your, uh, Kilmarnock segment here. Better than last week because they didn't lose, right? They didn't lose full time, uh, versus Aberdeen. A nil-nil draw. Um, as we sit 12th, which is bottom, yes, in the standings.

Um, don't have a lot of great things to say. Didn't get to watch the match. Obviously on Fotmob I get updates. Uh, I will, as we progress here, try to catch a match, uh, whether it be a replay or not. Um, you're obviously, you're in a better position than I am to tell me about this Kilmarnock team and why we're sitting in 12th position.

Well, I mean, what I've been saying so far this season is that defensively they just aren't very good. But of course they didn't actually concede this time around, which then of course makes you look up the pitch. Um, and, uh, you know, I'm starting to just think they aren't very good, um, is where I'm sitting. Aberdeen have been pretty not great to start the year, and Kilmarnock unable to do anything. Let me just ask you a quick question.

Is it— it's not, uh, uncommon to play the same team back to back? Because it looks like we're going on the 12th to play Aberdeen again. Yeah, so 2 separate competitions is why that happened. This was last weekend in the, the Scottish Premiership. This is a League Cup weekend, so we're down to the last 8 in the League Cup.

You'll see the same anomaly for Celtic, who play Rangers twice in as many weeks because of that same reason. Hibs on the 15th. Um, so yeah, yeah, Hibs have been, um, Hibs, which is very inconsistent, occasionally looking brilliant Mostly looking terrible. Uh, 3 matches now where Kilmarnock have failed to score. So now it seems like maybe we sort of figured out the defense and suddenly the attack is nowhere to be found, which again kind of just points to the fact that, uh, you might have to buckle up for a pretty shite campaign this year.

That's okay. Yeah, so let's, uh, end her off here with a preview of the, uh, quarterfinals of the Scottish League Cup happening this weekend. It all starts, um, Friday as Hearts travel to second division team Stenhousemuir. Now this Stenhousemuir team, Stenny for short, are a part-time side that were promoted to the second tier this year. They currently sit top of that division.

Um, they beat Livingston last Friday, which I was able to catch. Um, so we have a part-time team, maybe, of course incredibly early in the year, knocking on the door of top-flight football in Scotland, which would be a really interesting storyline. Uh, so they have Hearts, Your Kilmarnock, which you'll actually be able to watch, so maybe that can be your match for the weekend, uh, taking on Aberdeen, um, 12:45 Saturday. Ross County all the way down in the 3rd tier now taking on Hibs, and then Rangers hosting Celtic, that's Sunday, 7 AM. One of 2 Glasgow derbies in the next 2 weeks.

So it, uh, promises to be interesting in the land of Scotland the next couple of weeks. All right, well, coming up on the hour, I think we'll get going here. I think we've got everything under control, and if you're ready, I'm ready. Yeah, I'm ready. Uh, we'll say adios since it's the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane, copyright 2025, 2026. Yeah, whatever, whatever.

Tackling the Chicane is recorded using Rode microphones and a Rodecaster Pro 2 console. They don't pay us yet, but maybe someday they will. We'll see you next time.