Odegaard back to his best!? | Nine goal thriller at Stamford Bridge!

0:00Hello and welcome to Paper Talk bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Jessica Criton and joining me this time around, Henry Winter and Nick Miller. Welcome to you both. Yeah, what a night it was in the Champions League. Let's start there. World shall we? Arsenal and Liverpool both got their campaigns off to a winning start, victories over Napoli and Athletico Madrid respectively. There's a lot of talk of Liverpool on the back pages as we saw. Let's have a look at the telegraph and they splash with McAllister looking happy, grin and tonic they say. Sad McAllister is smiles better now. It was a good performance from him, wasn't it, Henry? A good performance from a Liverpool side that had to come from behind and show some grit to get the job done. Yeah, I mean, it looked like he was pouring all his emotion into that strike from the edge of the area and he was involved in the build up as well in

1:01he stayed alive and kept an eye on it and he was just fantastic finish. But look, those sort of stories, those sort of events are perfect for the football writers who were there yesterday covering the press conference, which he came out, spoke very emotionally and obviously very genuinely and he sounded very frustrated that he hadn't been or talks hadn't started about a contract extension. But you know, he's got two years left on his contract just because one or two others have got it. Maybe they delivered more last season. You look at his first two seasons for Liverpool, he was terrific and then he standard-step last season and there should be an element of performance related and he delivered tonight. So maybe at some point they can, if he continues performing like this and better than he was last season, then he absolutely deserves a new contract. Well, wait to see if that materialises Nick. What did you make Liverpool's performance considering they had to come from behind to do it against? Were the opposition in the Champions League? Yeah, I mean, you know, you go behind to I think I've enjoyed it the best of times, you think, you know, this is going to be a tough night.

2:03But they did very well to come back. I don't think they're quite at the kind of little, could not quite play in the football there and then Eareola would like to play. They kind of, they create a few chances but they just couldn't quite finish a lot of them off. They still look a little bit chaotic at the back, although that seems to be improving a little bit. Bradley Barkler could have had a couple of goals. So I think they will be kind of, I think, happy rather than ecstatic with the night's work. Obviously got the result. Played, it looks like they're going kind of in the right direction but not quite yet, quite there yet. Do you feel Henry that was starting to see Eareola's vision for this Liverpool team? Is he beginning to stamp his mark on how they play? I think he's trying and you can see elements of it. But remember the transfer window, has only closed Barkler, has only just arrived and he's obviously a key player, was going to be a key player for them.

3:03EZAC is sort of easing his way back in. He looked lively early in the season, less so tonight. And Gomer was good to see him on the left, which is his best position. He'll go on and have a decent career with England. So they're absolutely, they're encouraging signs there. But it took Eareola a little bit of time to actually impose his vision and his tactics and his philosophy on Bournemouth. But when they got rolling, we were saying, who is this guy? What are he doing there? They're not doing particularly well and then they really took off. So you have to give managers a bit of time. New players, new expectations as well. When you walk into Liverpool with respect, it's not Bournemouth. Everyone is scrutinising you. The small things are big things. So yeah, but look, he's a terrific manager. And I'm sure that the team will blossom and we'll see more of them. I mean, next right, they won't completely flying. But they will do. They need one or two of their individual, their big performance like Virgil Van Dyke, maybe one or two of the midfielders to really step up and that things will

4:03click. Four backs being an issue for them. But Eareola has come in. It looks like he's doing pretty well at right back, which sort of calms down some of the concerns there. But yeah, let's give Eareola a little bit of time. Yeah, so he gets his first anfield win and it comes under the lights as well. And Nick, what do we make of Bradley Barclay? His first start for his new club, but there were some worrying scenes as he had to limp off in the second half. Yeah, I think Eareola said that it looks like cramp. I mean, at the time, it did look as if he'd kind pulled a calf muscle, which will obviously be pretty bad news. But if it is just cramp, that's kind of understandable. As you say, this is his first start. He doesn't really have much of a preseason. So, I mean, he can't expect him to be playing quite the right level on the level that he's expected to be. And yeah, if he got cramp, it was sort of about 70 minutes gone, I think,

5:07in the game when he went off. So that's kind of unsoundable. So hopefully it's just a sort of temporary issue when he won't be out in june for a long time. Okay, so a good night for Liverpool, but also very good night for Arsenal. Reached the final last time around. They wanted to get off to a good start and they have the 1-0 winners against Napoli, Oda Guard with the winning goal. And Henry, he could just continue to go from strength to strength. It seems Martin Oda Guard. He's really continued this great start to the season. One girl in 36 games for Arsenal last season, four and five for them this season. We saw how good he was at the World Cup. I mean, I think the most important thing to say about him is he looks fully fit. He looks free from injury so psychologically and physically, that is so important. And he's flying. And look, everyone, you know, go back to his Royal Madrid days. I don't think anyone has questioned his ability. But actually now you see that there is that confidence, the more ruthless edge. Maybe even a slightly more robust physically and

6:10mentally. And that's a great headline on the back of the Sun, Napoli ever after. And everyone's happy with him. And Solis as well. I mean, Solis has come in. I think that's the third time he's teed him up. I mean, the previous two across is from the left. Solis appeared sort of a bit more in the box. And I think we're seeing a more entertaining and more expressionful to Arsenal this season, less reliant on the on the deadboard. And some of their movement was fantastic. A word too for Conzo, I thought was outstanding at the back as well, dealing with Napoli's threat on the break. But that was a very mature, controlled and ultimately successful performance. Absolutely capped off by a captain now taking responsibility. Martin Oda God. Yeah, it felt like a professional performance as well, didn't it, from Arsenal Nick? And for all the talk about their perhaps lacking attacking strength and letting a lot of attacking players leave in the transfer window, it doesn't really seem to be hindering him so far this season, does it?

7:12I mean, you don't like to use the sort of slightly dreaded phrase, like a new signing for some of their existing players. But if Oda God was really, yeah, well, if Oda God was really a factor last season or much of a factor last season, if he's going to be, if he's placed most of the season like he started this one, Saka was injured and not really kind of at the top of his game for a lot of last season as well, Havats was injured for most of the season. So they have these kind of key attacking players that they won the league despite not getting huge amount from last season. So if three, maybe even two of those players with Oda God being the most impressive so far, then not signing, if you're going to be in Arvarez or Venice Jr or one of those players, might not be such a big problem. Yeah, we'll wait to see obviously, but if they can keep this up, it certainly looks like a really strong Arsenal side. Strong enough to remain the favourites in

8:15this competition, Henry. I mean, having walked Barcelona earlier, I mean, they looked absolutely fantastic, bar unit with Harry Kane. I mean, PSG, they'll be going for three in a row and they have slightly lighter workloads domestically. So let's not rule those out, but absolutely, you saw how close Arsenal went last season, got to the final, got to extra time, got to the penalty shootout. And I think psychologically, they're playing like they feel that they know that they're champions. You're seeing so many responsibility takers all over the pitch. And with a defence like that, you can go so far in competition. So absolutely, they deserve to be amongst the favourites, even not the favourites. And it reflects well on English football, doesn't it, Nick? Because as reflected in the times, Premier Power is their headline, English teams extend perfect start in Europe with this Liverpool win, with this Arsenal win. It's a good showing for Premier League teams, isn't it? Yeah, and you'd probably expect Manchester United to win tomorrow night as well,

9:19although, you know, who knows. But yeah, it's just as you kind of expected really, and not the kind of maybe the most encouraging thing from an English perspective is not all, it kind of straightforward games either. It's always going to be difficult, Napoli, a way very difficult, and a lot of English sides have come and stuck there. So yeah, these kind of early victories in these tough games would be incredibly impressive. But at the same time, sort of what you expect from teams with the resources of the English teams that the English teams do. Can we get straight to this bonkers game, please, Stanford Bridge? Nine goals as Chelsea come from 2-0 down to Beat Leeds, 6-3, 8 goals, 8 goals in the second half. And one of the more bonkers things about this match, Henry, a quadruple sub at half time from Javier Lanzo saw the Calvary arrive because Chelsea were losing. Reese James comes on Morgan Rogers, Cold Palmer, Pedro Neto. There were

10:22two goals after that from Palmer, one goal from Pedro Neto with three assists from Rogers, a massive gamble by Javier Lanzo, considering they're not in Europe. Why is he not playing his best players from the start? It's a really good point there. I mean, I guess he feels he's got a good, a big squad, but you look at, he's starting line up and probably only two of them, Le Quaron and Colwell will actually get in Chelsea's first choice team. So yeah, he did absolutely go a bit far. And you know, 35,000 turned up at the bridge and they want to see the majority of them presumably, Chelsea fans and they would actually want to see a team, their team go go far. They want to have a build up a bit of momentum. I did enjoy Morgan Rogers afterwards coming, got three assists, although he said four. So I even used that Palmer got got man of the match. So, but look, it just shows what a great competition it is that you've got to show the respect Daniel Farca did at the start and they went into a two goal lead and they Javier Lanzo probably had a look at some of the

11:25the French players and thought, I'm not so sure about them and brought on the Cavaliers, you can see with with Rogers and Palmer here and what a fantastic player the players they are. And you know what we talk a lot about this in Champions League week and obviously this is the the FL Cup, but it's great to see English players like that clicking and doing so well. Yeah, they're clearly very good friends as well off the pitch aren't they those two. So really great to see and we're going to just stay with the theme of Chelsea. Go to the back page of the Guardian. We deserve to be champions. You'll see that headline at the bottom of your screen. Chelsea's 2016 17 title should be given to Spurs says Pocciatino. Now when Pocciatino speaks people tend to listen. I get that, but this was not on my bingo card or things he could have possibly discussed Nick. So Meritio Pocciatino says that Chelsea should be stripped of their 2016 17 Premier League title for financial rule breaches and the honour retrospectively awarded to Tottenham who he led to second place that season. Your thoughts.

12:32Yeah spicy one isn't it? You also kind of forget that Pocciatino used to be Chelsea manager as well. Not too bothered about that. I'm just saying people are one of his old jobs. But yeah I mean I don't know. I can understand why he's saying it. He went so close a couple of times with Tottenham probably felt he should have won at least one Premier League with Tottenham given the you know the players and the team that he had there. So I can understand why he might say this and I don't know the circumstances at the interview. Maybe he was kind of sued of the juicy question to kind of elicit this kind of answers. And don't think that what he says is necessarily being in the case. Chelsea obviously broke some rules. I'm not sure they broke the rules to the kind of extent that they should have the title stripped from them. They were very clearly the best team in the division that season. And Tenno Conte is kind of best season in charge there. And you know

13:33what while they did break some some rules that I'm not sure but that title should be kind of taken off for for for those rules. Yeah just a bit of background on this then. Chelsea were fined by the Premier League for financial breaches between 2011 and 2018. They escaped sporting sanctions in part because they're new owners who bought the club from Remina Brownvich in 2022 reported the rule breaches themselves. Henry I'd love to get your view. What should I take then? Well very quickly. I mean I think the self-reporting has obviously saved them and I'm if I play to the new owners for doing that. But if you read the interview there's a real edge in Potschertino's voice. It wasn't simply sort of one question he was responding to. It was almost sounded like a sort of fuselage of them. And he said well basically I lost my job and obviously a job he really loved at Spurs because I didn't win a title. So it's obviously very personal for him. It's obviously something that stayed with him for what nine years so far. But I mean you know you

14:35mentioned the fact that Chelsea got fined. It's absolutely pointless finding clubs who've just spent what three and a half billion pounds in the transfer window. Find a relevant. It's just a question of how strong how strictly authorities want to be and whether it's bigger point weight should be bigger point deductions. But in terms of stripping a team of a title I mean that then absolutely guarantees that title campaigns will be settled in law courts. Okay let's go from football to cricket and again on the back page of the Guardian they've made reference to England's really good day against Pakistan in this third and final test demolition job at the top of your page. Red Hot Robinson claims he's 100th test wicket as England steam roller Pakistan again. So another impressive performance for England Nick and Oli Robinson a standout feature with the ball. Yeah Oli Robinson the this is it was going around anyone that he is of all bowlers test match bowlers who have taken 100 wickets post second

15:38one ball he has the best average of anyone I'll just English bowlers. So yeah he's been he's been an absolutely sensational. There's some other I do find that this series quite dispiriting really just because Pakistan aren't this Pakistan team aren't very good and they've been given absolutely no chance of even performing to their abilities by the way that all this all been handled by the PCB. Obviously they the seven of their players were sent home after the second test match I think three making their debut in in this game so it's it's not been a particularly edifying expectacle England bowl very well today Josh Tongues were in as well. Joffa Raich has took a couple of wickets but yeah it's it's not been a kind of vintage test series to watch not and just are not particularly enjoyable either even knowing the lack of you know cruising to a three-year virtually nothing. So how do you think the new reappointed captain Joe Root might be

16:39assessed on this I mean finally we're talking about cricket on the field rather than missed the misdemeanors off it. Yeah well you know there's still a couple of those in the series to go so you you back England to kind of bolt on the bag there but yeah I mean it's a look it's quite difficult to assess his captains fee given that you know he just you needed to give the balls to these bowlers and they would you know in helpful conditions against sort of fairly feeble opposition they they take a bagload of wickets and I'm more concerned about whether this is affecting his batting he's kind of got a little bit of a score today he keeps getting out over w my kind of hope for him as he would be he would break session 10 Dorcas all-time test runs record and I don't know it looked like he was going to be on for that fairly comfortably but if he keeps going out over w and get to sort of relatively innocuous bowlers then he might not go there. And just very briefly Nick I know you've been writing about cricket in particular the Sky Sports Cricket Commentary booth you've

17:42compared being in that booth to driving in traffic in Hanoi in Vietnam why? Well I was in there and to me it felt like complete chaos it just like some people were talking here and the some of people were looking for to over here and people running around but in it's sort of the people involved it wasn't chaos because everyone knew what they're doing and if you've ever been in places like Hanoi where the traffic seems chaotic but everyone kind of knows what they're doing so to an outsider it looks absolutely mad but when you're in it and you kind of know what you're doing and you're used to it then it all is actually fairly calm and sorry. Yeah organized chaos they are some of the best in the business glad you got to witness a glimpse of the genius that is the Sky Sports Cricket Team. Okay let's just move on to Rugby where we're almost coming to time Henry you got about a 45 seconds or so but on the back page of the Daily Telegraph, Bawthwicks, Win or Bust-Steel. RFU extends England coaches contracts to 2028 excuse me six nations. Considering England's

18:48poor runner form do you agree with this? I think it's a ridiculous decision we never learn in England in English sport giving people it should be performance related you should actually see how far he can go in the in the world Carpacae it's difficult but you get to the semi-finals fair enough and then you can extend it after that going into to the six nations he's got a win rate of I think about 59 percent which is not great I mean I went to one of the six nations last year and I'm trying to raise it for my memory England was so poor then I had a bad result against Fiji as well so I'm amazed but you know they did it with Tuchal they did it with Kapello in the sport I cover football we never learn. It seems then Henry that his future will be decided by the World Cup performance that's upcoming is that your kind of take on it? Well he's got this sort of extension going into the six nations afterwards I mean it should be tournament by tournament going deliver in the tournament we started off this show talking about Alexis McAllister

19:49deliver on the pitch as a coach get those players organized get them to deliver and then you deserve that contract extension and do you feel that Steve Hawthwick still has the the minds and the hearts of the players is he still able to command that dressing room? Possibly you'd have to go in and ask them but I can tell you from being amongst England's fan base the rugby union fan base I don't think they're all on his side yeah it says I'm just reading some of the quotes because they're very telling this is from Gavin Mayer's chief rugby correspondent in the daily telegraph and he he's talking about Conor O'Shea the RFU's executive director of rugby performance and he says I see in Steve someone who bleeds England and wants England to succeed more than anything you can imagine this England team is unequivocally one of probably five teams who can win the World Cup next year I believe this team can win a World Cup can they? Well I hope he does I hope he does bleed for for England he's a very passionate patriotic individual but I think that there's

20:53another quote in there saying that England's performance in the last tournament in the Six Nations was horrendous so you know put those two side by side and it seems mixed messages yeah it really does it's gone very quickly once again gentlemen thank you for your input on paper talk Nick Miller and Henry Winter a pleasure to have your company